ESCONDIDO, Calif., Oct. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Realty Income Corporation (Realty Income), The Monthly Dividend Company®, (NYSE: O), today announced that Sumit Roy will assume the role of Chief Investment Officer ("CIO") of Realty Income and will be responsible for overseeing the company's investment activities.

Serving most recently as Executive Vice President, Acquisitions, Mr. Roy has done an outstanding job as Realty Income's acquisitions team leader and has been integral to implementing the company's expanded acquisitions strategy focused on increasing the size, quality and diversity of its real estate portfolio. Mr. Roy's responsibilities have included running the day-to-day operations and executing the strategic directives of the acquisitions group. As such, he has worked on all of the recent large entity and property portfolio acquisitions that have been completed.

Prior to joining the company, Mr. Roy was a New York-based investment banker for 10 years, and was responsible for more than $57 billion in real estate capital markets and advisory transactions. During his investment banking career, he served as Executive Director in the Global Real Estate, Lodging & Leisure Group for UBS Investment Bank, where he covered real estate companies, including Realty Income. Prior to his tenure at UBS, he held positions in Corporate Finance at MeadWestvaco, in Technology Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch, and as a Consultant and Principal at Cap Gemini. Mr. Roy holds both a Bachelor and a Masters degree in Computer Science, and an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

Commenting on Mr. Roy's promotion, Chief Executive Officer, John P. Case said, "I have worked with Sumit for more than seven years, on a broad array of transactions, where I had a chance to observe first-hand his diverse business and real estate experience, as well as his leadership strengths. As such, I have complete confidence and trust in his ability to continue to perform exceptionally well as CIO. Sumit was intimately involved in the successful completion of our acquisition of American Realty Capital Trust, earlier this year, and was also instrumental in creating and implementing the integration plan which resulted in a successful close of that transaction. In addition, he has done an outstanding job of keeping our acquisitions team focused on sourcing and completing transactions that meet our strategic objectives. I look forward to continuing to work with Sumit in his capacity as CIO."

Realty Income is The Monthly Dividend Company®, a New York Stock Exchange real estate company dedicated to providing shareholders with dependable monthly income. As of October 15, 2013, the company had paid 519 consecutive monthly dividends throughout its 44-year operating history. The monthly income is supported by the cash flows from over 3,600 properties owned under long-term lease agreements with leading regional and national retail chains and other commercial enterprises. The company is an active buyer of net-leased properties nationwide. Additional information about the company can be obtained from the corporate website at www.realtyincome.com or www.twitter.com/realtyincome.